Do you support the rights of whales and dolphins?

If you support animal rights, sign the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans: Whales and Dolphins:

Based on the principle of the equal treatment of all persons;
Recognizing that scientific research gives us deeper insights into the complexities of cetacean minds, societies and cultures;
Noting that the progressive development of international law manifests an entitlement to life by cetaceans;
We affirm that all cetaceans as persons have the right to life, liberty and wellbeing.
We conclude that:

1. Every individual cetacean has the right to life.
2. No cetacean should be held in captivity or servitude; be subject to cruel treatment; or be removed from their natural environment.
3. All cetaceans have the right to freedom of movement and residence within their natural environment.
4. No cetacean is the property of any State, corporation, human group or individual.
5. Cetaceans have the right to the protection of their natural environment.
6. Cetaceans have the right not to be subject to the disruption of their cultures.
7. The rights, freedoms and norms set forth in this Declaration should be protected under international and domestic law.
8. Cetaceans are entitled to an international order in which these rights, freedoms and norms can be fully realized.
9. No State, corporation, human group or individual should engage in any activity that undermines these rights, freedoms and norms.
10. Nothing in this Declaration shall prevent a State from enacting stricter provisions for the protection of cetacean rights.

Agreed, 22nd May 2010, Helsinki, Finland

Do you support this declaration? Click here to add your name.

Will you stand up for animals in this year’s Ithaca Festival Parade?

Just saw this on Facebook:

Please join Finger Lakes Animal Rights on Wednesday May 29th, to march in the Ithaca Festival 2013 Parade, themed “Where the Heart Is”. We’ll be walking resources — carrying signs displaying titles of books, podcasts, films, etc. related to making the world a better place through veganism. Anyone is welcome to join in. A great opportunity to show our community that it’s a win-win situation to Wear a Heart for ALL animals.

Finger Lakes Animal Rights parade banner

More info and ongoing updates: www.veganedu.org/parade/

Contact & RSVP: fingerlakesanimalrights@gmail.com

Conference: “A Politics of Disability, Animal Liberation, and Queering”

Dear vegans of today: Thank you for being awesome. This is so incredibly far beyond anything that was happening when I was an 18-year-old baby vegan. How far we’ve all come!

1st Annual Conference “Engaging with Eco-ability”
Binghamton University, New York
April 27 and 28, 2013

Theme:
A Politics of Disability, Animal Liberation, and Queering

The 1st Annual Conference “Engaging with Eco-ability” will be hosted at Binghamton University April 27th & 28th, 2013. The conference will be organized and moderated by Anthony Nocella II and JL Schatz. The goal of this conference is to lay the groundwork for an edited book that’s part of the Critical Animal Studies series published by Lexington Books.

Sponsors include Binghamton University English Department, Binghamton University, Institute for Critical Animal Studies, and Students for Critical Animal Studies.

More info / RSVP on Facebook.

New vegan book club starting up in Ithaca

Via the Ithaca Vegans group on Facebook:

For those of you not on the meetup website I am starting a vegan book club and discussion group. The first date is for Sat. May 4th at 3:00. I suggested the first book, The Lucky Ones by Jenny Brown founder of Woodstock farm animal sanctuary. We will also discuss what else everyone wants to read. If you are interested let me know. – Stephanie

Happy birthday César Chávez

Happy birthday to the late, great César Chávez: a labor rights and environmental justice activist, and a vegan. He said,

I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry and unhappy like we do. I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings.

10 things you can do to help bees

This morning I started to read Bee Deaths From Colony Collapse Disorder On The Rise As Researchers Point To Pesticides on Huffington Post, and then I realized I’d rather find out how I can help, instead of just feeling bad about the problem. Here are some suggestions I found on the interwebs.

1. Stop buying GMO, non-organic food, and support organic agriculture instead. Buy used and/or organic clothing.
2. Learn about where your food and clothing comes from and how much pesticide went into its production.
3. Stop using pesticides in your own lawn and garden.
4. Sign petitions banning pesticides, and support the use of organic alternatives.
5. Encourage your local government to do more to help bees.
6. Attract bees by planting clover, flowering trees, and herbs that bees like. Provide a water source so they can take a drink when they visit.
7. Let your veggies go to seed after harvest, to help fatten up your bee neighbors for the long winter.
8. Educate yourself about bees so you can be more sure of how you relate to them and what you might like to do to help them.
9. Pass on your knowledge about bees. Your voice is powerful, and the bees can’t speak for themselves! Make sure that kids understand that bees are an important part of their ecosystem.
10. Provide bee habitat, but make sure you’re keeping bees and humans safe from hurting each other by marking bees’ homes.

    The only one I saw folks mention elsewhere that I didn’t put here was “become a beekeeper / support your local beekeeper.” I don’t feel that it would be my place to confine and manipulate others and take things they make, or to encourage others to do that. It takes the average worker bee her entire life to produce just one twelfth of one teaspoon of honey. They make it for their colony, not for us.

    If you do choose to use bee products, please make sure they’re locally produced and that you feel good about the way the bees are living, from birth to death. Since your decision impacts the lives of other beings, you may want to educate yourself about some of the ethical problems with beekeeping, honey, and beeswax. Thank you!

How many sharks do humans kill, in one hour?

Infographic showing the number of humans killed by sharks, worldwide, in a year (just 12), vs. the number of sharks that humans kill every hour (11,417), by Joe Chernov and Robin Richards. Click here for more info about these numbers and where this graphic came from.

Click to see the big version, which is pretty shocking.

If you feel for the sharks, please, share this graphic, take action against shark finning and overfishing, and if you haven’t yet, go vegan!

Why eat eggs?

I just watched the short film Story Of An Egg after reading about it on Huffington Post. I found myself sympathizing with the farmers who are trying to find more ethical ways of farming eggs, and I used to love eating eggs myself – but I can’t help but be unsettled by the assumption that we have to go on exploiting animals to live happy, fulfilled, healthy lives.

Watch 2013 Festival | The Story of an Egg on PBS. See more from PBS Online Film Festival.

Eggs can be a great source of nutrition for humans, it’s true. But do we need them – are plant-based proteins just not enough for us? Can we justify our need?

The 47 Percent Filmmaker likes people and animals

I noticed when reading about Scott Prouty, the ’47 Percent’ Filmmaker who helped bring down Romney, that he’s not only a friend to working people – he’s a friend to animals. The article reports that he “spent his free time volunteering with his girlfriend at a South Florida SPCA, where he gave a HuffPost reporter a tour of the horse rescue operation” and offers this link to donate. He also once saved a drowning woman from a canal full of alligators – incidentally saving the alligators, who were going to be shot if other rescue folks had got their gun in time. Proving, once again, that having a love for animals doesn’t mean you can’t be a humanitarian too!

What do you have to say about the intersection of identity politics and speciesism?

Just in from the Eco-ability Collective about a conference coming up on April 27th & 28th, 2013:

There’s a week and a half left to submit abstracts for the 1st annual Eco-Ability conference held at Binghamton University, which is set to explore the intersection of identity politics and speciesism. For more information check out our website at ecoability.wordpress.com

This sounds like an awesome event! The theme will be “A Politics of Disability, Animal Liberation, and Queering.” Proposals are due March 23, 2013.

The conference will help to lay the groundwork for a book that will be part of Lexington Books’ Critical Animal Studies series. Follow Earth, Animal, and Disability Liberation: The Rise of Eco-Ability on Facebook.